Nearby

Ema sometimes wondered when her life had become so quiet.

Every morning, she went to work.

Every evening, she came home.

The next day was almost exactly the same.

Work. Home. Sleep.

Then repeat.

She had no close friends waiting for her after work. No family she could call when life became difficult. There was no one she could depend on when things went wrong.

Financially, she wasn’t really stable either. She had learned to be careful with every euro she spent. There was no family safety net behind her, no one who could simply step in and help if she suddenly couldn’t manage on her own.

And this year, she was nearly forty.

Sometimes, that number made her uncomfortable.

Not because forty was old.

But because she had imagined that by this age, her life would look different.

She thought she would have someone.

Maybe a husband.

Maybe a small family.

Maybe a few close friends who knew her well.

Instead, she had an apartment she returned to every evening and a quiet phone that rarely received messages.

She had never been in a relationship.

Never experienced a first love.

Never had someone waiting for her.

Her life wasn’t tragic.

It was simply… ordinary.

Too ordinary.

That evening, Ema stood alone at the tram stop on her way home.

The streets of Lyon were slowly becoming quieter as the evening settled over the city. The old buildings glowed softly beneath the fading sunlight, while people hurried home from work.

A couple walked past her, talking and laughing.

Ema watched them for a moment before looking away.

She put her hands inside the pockets of her coat.

The tram was late.

She sighed and looked up at the sky.

The clouds were painted with soft shades of orange and pink.

For a few seconds, she forgot about the noise around her.

Then the thought came.

Will my life always be like this?

She stared at the sky.

Work. Home. Alone.

Her lips pressed into a thin smile.

“Will I grow old like this?”

She paused.

Then, almost in a whisper, she said to herself,

“Will I die alone?”

The question made her chest feel strangely heavy.

She lowered her eyes.

“Am I really going to grow old as a loser like this?”

Ema immediately felt foolish for thinking it.

But the feeling remained.

She wasn’t asking for a perfect life.

She just wanted something to happen.

Someone to remember her.

Someone to ask how her day had been.

Someone who would notice if she didn’t come home.

The sound of the approaching tram finally broke her thoughts.

Ema looked up.

The tram rolled slowly toward the platform, its lights shining against the evening.

She stepped forward with the other passengers.

It was just another evening.

Just another ride home.

Just another ordinary day.

At least, that’s what Ema thought.

She didn’t know that before the night was over, she would open her phone and see a message from someone she had never met.

A stranger.

A man named Remi.

And she certainly didn’t know that the stranger was much closer than she could ever imagine.